An Afro-Asian is a person of African and Asian ancestry. As Afro-Asian is a broad term, it can be broken down into various sub-groups that are distinguished by their demographic location. Due to the widespread African and Asian diasporas, Afro-Asians reside throughout the world. In North America, and the Caribbean, the influx of Chinese and Indian workers in the 19th century forming unions with enslaved or free Africans gave rise to significant populations of Afro-Asians . In the United States, the neologism and portmanteau "Blasian" has gained informal usage to describe someone of Afro-Asian heritage.